Audio Cables?

So I bought a pair of Pioneer SP-BS21-LR's. I also bought a digital amp. So now I just need the cables. I need a s/pdif cable and two pairs of cables to attach those speakers to this:



(I know there's no s/pdif, the one I bought does)

So the s/pdif cable, just buy the cheapest?

The audio cables? I have no idea what I'm even searching for (noob... first time with real audio). But I do happen to have banana to speaker wire converters that I got for 14c on clearance at work.

I get that the audio cables are analogue so I understand the cheapest isn't an option, suggestions will be much appreciated.

S/pdif, I wouldn't go exactly with absolute cheapest, but even a cheap decent single RCA ended cable will do. You do not need to buy some specially made s/pdif specifc cable. It is just a normal RCA cable, sans being in a pair like you would normal get for a stereo system.

Speaker cables, cheap is an option. Don't believe the made up, important sounding technical jargon that companies like Monster Cable likes to feed the public in thier ads to try and convince you that you need to pay $50 a foot for speaker cable. A 12 gauge lamp cord will perform the same.

For either, check Monoprice.com. You can find various lengths for really cheap prices of either item. General rule for speaker cable, the more wattage/longer run, the heavier the gauge wire you would need. 18 gauge should be a minimum. 12 gauge if you need to carry lots of power and/or have a long run (100ft?). 16 to 14 gauge is usually the norm.

If both the amp and the PC have optical S/PDIF, use it unless the run is too long for that to be economical. For coax, any reasonable quality 75 ohm coax will work.

For speaker wire, just get some cord wire at Home Depot and call it done.

The TV and amp both have optical s/pdif.

Thanks guys, I think i'll just buy some basic speaker cables then and call it good. I only need 6ft maybe not even that.

I made a dumbass mistake. TV has coaxial digital output for sound. Not optical. Can I get around this anyway other than buying a coaxial to optical converter? I'm guessing no as the only digital input is optical. And if I did have to buy one of those, it's dealing with a digital signal so I don't have to spend $'s for it to not bottleneck my sound quality right?

Just use a piece of 75 ohm coax, like what was commonly used for composite video. A cheap converter will work fine if you need it.

NiHaoMike said:

Just use a piece of 75 ohm coax, like what was commonly used for composite video. A cheap converter will work fine if you need it.

Click to expand...

The OPs TV has Coaxial out, the other component has optical in.

Monoprice to the rescue!

I don't know why I've been linking to there so often recently.

Got it all set up, pretty impressed with the sound for the money spent.

However my issue is the sound system rapes the OTA tv channels. Makes a noise like someone scrunching a chip packet and the picture is barely even there. Is there anyway to avoid this?

If the amplifier does not support AC3, set the TV to output PCM.

Wow, thanks... why did that make a difference?

AC3 is a different (compressed) audio format. A little like MP3 vs. WAV.

I switched it from RAW to PCM. I don't get how any kind of compression would effect OTA channels.